A study of jailed men found differences in two prefrontal regions of the brain between prisoners who had been diagnosed with psychopathy and those who had not.

In the psychopathic prisoners, two cortexes in the frontal lobes “exhibit deficits” when they see pain and distress cues from others, according to a paper about the research in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry. Those regions, in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex, process risk, fear and decision making.

The study also found that the psychopathic prisoners processed facial cues of distress differently than did members of the control group.